You want MORE B.S.?

[babylonsister]

You want MORE B.S.?
by Stephen Pizzo | May 10, 2008

snip//

In the closing days of the Indiana and North Carolina races Hillary Clinton tried to transform herself from New York monied suburbanite into Huey Long in a pantsuit. She promised a chicken in every pot -- in the form of a summer repeal of the federal tax on gasoline. She claimed that Obama's refusal to propose the same meaningless jesture was proof he was not "one of us" -- meaning he was not a white, working class, ordinary citizen -- that he was "disconnected from ordinary working Americans."

Voters responded with a resounding, "forget about it." They were more interested in hearing some straight talk -- the real kind, as opposed to the same old:

"Tell-em-whatever-it-takes-to-get-their-vote-and-then-move-on," strategies of the McCain/Hillary campaigns.

But the past success of sleaze politics made me anxious. I've sent emails to the Obama campaign over the past few months urging the candidate to "start punching back." I was afraid that the Hillary and McCain politics of sleaze and innuendo would work again, and come November I would be faced with a choice between Twiddle DeeDee or Twiddle Dumber.

But Obama never did punch back in kind. He was right not to listen to those of us encouraging him to, in effect, join the "your-mother's-so-fat," quality campaigning of his two opponents.

So, the question is, could it be that we are about to have an Presidential campaign -- at least on the Democratic side -- that will not be decided by the machinations of the lowest common denominator types, but on the very many, very real, very serious issues suddenly facing America and the world?

more...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/14543

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[Miss Authoritiva]

1. No.

So, the question is, could it be that we are about to have an Presidential campaign -- at least on the Democratic side -- that will not be decided by the machinations of the lowest common denominator types, but on the very many, very real, very serious issues suddenly facing America and the world?

No.

And it has nothing to do with the candidates themselves. The term "presidential campaign" by default means "media coverage of the presidential campaign," and you're not going to find any meaningful discussions of "the very many, very real, very serious issues suddenly facing American and the world" in conventional corporate American media.

Policy discussions? Are you kidding! Citizens who want serious coverage of critical issues have to work hard to find it, basically searching through non-mainstream sources and the internet for podcasts, blogs, PDF files, and the like.

The most I expect of the upcoming "presidential campaign" is crap about McCain's melanoma, crap about Cindy McCain's refusal to release her tax returns, crap about Reverend Wright and the Weather Underground, psycho-babble crap about McCain's experience as a POW, psycho-babble crap about Obama's life as a mixed-race American, and on and on.

And that's assuming it doesn't just turn real nasty, real fast by pundits who want to bump up the ratings and the sales of newspapers and books.